Augusto Santos

ASIA is now increasingly the focus of growth in the world, but individual economies like the Philippines and similarly less developed markets have to identify sectors that need support in order to boost their competitiveness, experts said at a forum yesterday in the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City.

In her presentation, Suzanne Rosselet, deputy director of the International Institute for Management Development World Competitiveness Center, noted that Asia’s population will hit 5.26 billion by 2050, compared to Africa’s 1.77 billion, the European Union’s 628 million and the United States’ 447 million.

“This pretty much sums up where the long-term growth will be. [It] will be in Asia,” she said.

In the Philippines, she said, the government needs to focus on supporting small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and services, which have been an engine of growth.

She added that “there has to be job creation for young people moving into the workforce.”

David Jay Green, a fellow of the Asian Development Bank-Asian Institute of Management Knowledge Hub for Trade and Investment, noted that within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are pockets of less developed clusters like that of the otherwise resource-rich sub-region grouped into the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

He noted this group, which was formally established in 1984, was formed precisely to enable the less developed component areas to pool resources and efforts to help them catch up with more developed urban areas in the same countries. The Philippine components of BIMP-EAGA are Palawan and Mindanao.

Experts have prescribed increasing trade and other economic ties within Asia, as demand recovery in the US and Europe remains sluggish.

But Mr. Green stressed the need to further streamline trade processes within BIMP-EAGA if it is to live up to expectations as a driver of growth in Southeast Asia.

This, in turn, requires more efficient government operations, better infrastructure and “connectivity policies” — all of which will facilitate the transport of goods and trade in services.

“It’s a whole series of things that has to be done to encourage the business environment, trading environment and the ability of people to invest in their own country,” Mr. Green said.

Sought for comment, Augusto B. Santos, deputy director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, said the government has been finding ways to provide cheap loans to SMEs, help localities focus on a few products and services they can excel in, and is poised to embark on an infrastructure buildup under public-private partnerships in order to lay the groundwork for sustained, faster growth. — JJAC

The ProPinoy Project

The ProPinoy Project is a Global Community Center for all things Pinoy, to connect Filipinos at home and abroad by creating a space for ideas, trends and analyses about the Philippines and the global Pinoy community to inspire informed discussion and transformative action.

The ProPinoy Project is a Global Community Center for all things Pinoy, to connect Filipinos at home and abroad by creating a space for ideas, trends and analyses about the Philippines and the global Pinoy community to inspire informed discussion and transformative action.